Pet shops order puppies from commercial breeders, mostly in the Midwest, and are sold to anyone who comes up with the money, regardless of whether the breed is a good match for that person.

So do they all come from "puppy mills," those filthy, inhumane places that break your heart when you see the exposes on television? No. There are plenty of commercial breeders who adhere to high sanitation standards and their puppies are healthy and well-cared for.

So if the puppies are healthy (the pet shop does offer a warranty or return policy of some sort), why is it a bad idea to buy one?

Mainly it's that the commercial breeders don't put the time or money into choosing their breeding stock. In the better operations, you'll have two dogs of the same breed who are bred over and over to each other. Their physical quality (conformation) looks like your chosen breed, and often a pretty one. But you don't meet the mother and you can't learn anything at all about the father other than his name. If they were snappy or shy or suffered from separation anxiety, you'll never know. If they die of cardiac problems at age seven or eight, you'll never know. If another inherited disease turns up, you won't be notified. Your puppy's background and personality-in-waiting are a total mystery.

We also believe that you cannot mass produce puppies and always have them turn out to be social, loving companions for people. To live in homes, they should be raised in homes. The parents of puppies raised commercially, regardless of the type operation it is, spend their lives in kennels, not as family pets. When they are too old to produce more puppies, they are usually sold at auction to the highest bidder or killed. This is, after all, a business, and a dog that's not producing is simply an unwarranted expense.

Not every puppy bought through a pet shop turns out badly. But should you have problems, there's no one to call for help or advice. There's no one to say, "Oh yes, her mother did that too. I would...." followed by advice about dealing with the problem.

And pet shop puppies are very, very seldom cheaper. Check out their prices and then find out what a typical puppy or your breed costs from a "show breeder." The last prices we heard for whippets were $899 and up. Private breeders sell theirs for $500-$1000 (depending on the area of the country). So you're getting a puppy of lesser quality at an equal or higher price.

And for every puppy bought through a pet shop, another one is ordered from the puppy producers and the cycle continues. Rescuers often wait till these puppies are "marked down" and then buy them for what the pet store paid...that way they can be placed in appropriate homes without encouraging the store owner to ever want to get another one in! No matter how sorry you feel for the puppies in a pet shop, for every one you buy, you are helping supprt the commercial breeding of puppies.

Incidentally, many pet shops will assure you that their puppies come from local, caring breeders. But no good breeder offers them through a third party, where they'll be sold to anyone who shows up with a credit card or check, no questions asked. It doesn't matter where their puppies come from. By buying a puppy at a pet shop, you will be supporting the commercial breeding of whippets. Just walk away.

Breeders who have put thought, time and money into their litters want to sell them to people they know will provide suitable homes for whippets. A pet shop will sell an exhuberant, high-energy Lab puppy to an apartment dweller who has never owned a dog and works 12 hours a day.

The only way to stop the mass production of puppies is to stop patronizing pet stores who sell them. Let your local pet shop know that you will buy your pet supplies elsewhere as long as they continue to sell puppies. If you don't think you can walk out of a pet shop without "saving" one of the puppies, don't go in there to begin with. That's how we deal with it! I haven't been in a pet shop that sells puppies for years.

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